I think it's how resource intensive Windows is. There are things Windows does just as well as my Fedora laptop, but I like it more on linux because it doesn't take so much of my computer to run
I still haven't. I held onto 98 and XP for ages too. Vista and ME were solid reasons to be skeptical. I even had to support CE (the old mobile windows) which was literally called WinCE by windows so that support staff knew what was coming.